


A Journey of Discovery

by shiiki



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-08
Updated: 2009-04-08
Packaged: 2019-03-28 04:22:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13896162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiiki/pseuds/shiiki
Summary: He found that he couldn't quite reconcile the man whom people hailed as a war hero with the boy he still tended to see himself as.Neville takes a sabbatical to find himself again.





	A Journey of Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> I think I took a lot of liberty with the prompt [](https://latine.livejournal.com/profile)[latine](https://latine.livejournal.com/) gave me, which was _two or more characters from the Harry Potter world go on a roadtrip. Not necessarily a road trip, though, because I can't imagine many of them inside a car, but something of the sort._ In my personal canon, Luna and Neville are the only ones who really do much travelling post-war, and with the two of them, it's always a journey of discovery.
> 
> (Also, if anyone’s interested, I was listening to Natalie Imbruglia’s [Sunlight](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q5XDVOYruc%E2%80%9D) a few paragraphs into writing this. It’s not often that I find a song that suits me in writing, but I think there’s definitely a match with this one!)

When he stepped out of the International Floo point in Rangoon, Neville felt a sense of disorientation unrelated to the usual Floo-induced dizziness. He hefted his rucksack -- packed with a trunk-full of belongings, thanks to a nifty charm of Hermione's -- higher on his shoulders and stepped out into the bright Burmese sunshine.

It still didn't feel real. In the five years since leaving Hogwarts, the only times he had left England had been in the company of his fellow Aurors, generally using private Portkeys. And on those occasions, there had always been a schedule, a purpose for his travels.

But he'd turned in his resignation a month ago, wrapped up his business, made his plans and said his goodbyes. No longer was he Auror Longbottom -- a title which even after five years had never sit quite right, like he was just a kid play-acting. He didn't regret joining the department. They'd needed him and it had felt good right after the war to be doing something, helping to put the world back together again. However when things quietened down, he soon realised that he wasn't really cut out for this career. For years he'd dreamed about following in his parents' footsteps and making them proud of him and now that he _had_ \-- led Dumbledore's Army, defied Voldemort, and hunted down Death Eaters-- he found that he couldn't quite reconcile the man whom people hailed as a war hero with the boy he still tended to see himself as.

Which was the _real_ Neville Longbottom?

Well, that was why he was here, nearly halfway round the world from home, taking a sabbatical to sort out his mind and try and figure out what he wanted to do with his life.

Neville caught sight of a pale-haired woman waving at him and grinned. It had been months since anyone had seen Luna Lovegood; she'd become quite the globe-trotter in recent years. Her time abroad had darkened her skin and given her a haler, heartier look. She beamed as he approached.

'Luna,' he said warmly. 'It's good to see you.'

'Hello, Neville. How are you?'

'I'm—' _good_ , he meant to say, but the word died before it left his lips. 'I don't know,' he said finally. 'I think I'm lost.' He had a feeling that hadn't come out right and that he should explain that he didn't mean lost in a physical sense but in that emotional, can't-find-yourself sort of way ... but he had forgotten that this was Luna and she'd always had a knack for seeing to the roots of the problem.

She took his hand and said, 'It's okay. You'll see.'

\---

It was with surprising ease that Neville fell into the pace of their journey. All his life, he'd been subject to some form of structure; even that terrible year under Snape and the Carrows, there had been plans to be made and followed. Yet being without a schedule, their activities dictated by nothing except their whims, was strangely liberating.

They walked all the first day, trekking across plains, hills, and even a swampy marsh which Luna paused for several hours to examine. She seemed intent on documenting the natural habitat of what she called the Hischinthe. Neville couldn't verify its existence himself, as he saw neither hide nor hair of one, but that could have been because he was distracted by the discovery of a Shrinking Milkweed. Luna had kindly sketched it for him before they moved on.  
  
They carried on southwards into Thailand in this fashion. Their little road trip took them into wizarding civilisation occasionally but mostly it was through Muggle land that they passed. Luna was quite comfortable navigating her way through this uncertain territory -- whether it was soliciting lodgings or hitching a ride to a new destination.

'Why not Apparate?' Neville asked the first time she'd hailed a passing truck.

'You need to have a destination in mind for that.'

'Don't you have one?'

Luna shrugged. 'The curiosities of the world tend to reveal themselves only when you stumble across them.'

And she was right, he realised, when they found themselves chancing upon an actual Demiguise colony and Neville discovered that they not only fed on but also shielded a rare plant he'd not seen or heard of before in any Herbology text. It resembled a lotus, with wide, round, and flat leaves and silvery, delicate flowers which seemed to glow in dim light. It would vanish periodically and reappear again. Neville assumed this was due to the Demiguises moving across it, but after some observation (and a bit of prodding), he realised that only the flowers actually vanished on touch. The leaves turned pale and waxy and were edible only to the Demiguise. Once eaten, they grew back and the flowers became visible again. Neville had never seen or heard of anything like it.

'Where's the nearest town?' he asked Luna, hoping to find for reference a library, a bookstore, or failing that, a post owl. Professor Sprout was as veritable a font of information as most books.

'Oh!' said Luna, as the Demiguise she had been sketching took notice of them and vanished. Neville winced at his poor timing.

'Sorry.'

'That's all right.' Luna stowed her sketchbook. 'I've been drawing in bits anyway. It can't get any messier. What was your question again?'

'Do you think we can get a post owl?'

'Oh, I get owls now and then. Mina Quigley sends one monthly for me to write back for _The Quibbler_.' The magazine had returned to publication a year or so back; Neville remembered that Luna had started it up again on her return to England after her first foray out into the world. He wasn't sure how she managed it exactly but he supposed she'd employed an editor to run the copies for her now.

'But what happens when you want to send one right away?'

'I've found,' said Luna thoughtfully, 'that I don't actually _need_ to contact people that urgently. After all, if it's really important news, it should still be so weeks later.'

Neville found himself wondering if he really needed to ask Professor Sprout so badly. He thought about it -- he could, after all, Apparate out, although without a clear idea of where they were exactly, he ran a high risk of Splinching. Auror ( _ex_ -Auror, he had to remind himself) or not,Apparition wasn't his strong suit. In the end he decided to wait.

Meanwhile, he took notes on the plant and its visible properties, which he was beginning to call a Vanishing Lotus in his mind. By the time Luna's owl arrived a week later, bearing with it a copy of the last printer _Quibbler_ , he had already determined for himself that it did not share the same characteristics as any unique plant he had ever come across. He had twenty pages of notes, drawings, and observation logs ... and he wondered what he intended to do with it.

'Would you like to do an article for _The Quibbler_?' Luna asked unexpectedly.

'I ... I really don't know much about writing,' Neville stammered. He could still remember his doomed attempts at putting pen to paper two months ago when he'd been asked to write about his seventh year for an autobiographical memoir Padma Patil was compiling. Hours and hours of staring at a blank page had not managed to produce anything but a headache and a flood of memories, and not all of those pleasant.

'I wouldn't say that,' said Luna. She indicated his stack of notes. 'You seem to have written a lot already.'

It sounded oddly familiar ... his mind hopped back to Hogwarts six years ago and Luna's vote of confidence in him then.

_'I ... I don't know enough about defence.'_

_'I wouldn't say that. You've already fought Death Eaters twice.'_

Neville found himself smiling at the memory. 'Well,' he said, 'I reckon I can give it a go.'

\---

The first owl arrived two and a half months later. Neville and Luna had left the Demiguises by then and were currently camping out somewhere in the Malayan Peninsula, where he'd come across a Spitting Rafflesia (the stench it left in his robes was so bad, he knew he'd have to throw them away when he was done studying the foul-smelling plant) and she'd settled down to study Orang Abaths. The letter, short and simple, expressed an interest in his article on Vanishing Lotuses and hoping to arrange a meeting to learn more. It was signed by Artemisia Allworthy, the foremost Herbology expert in Europe. Neville read the encouraging words twice, pride blossoming in his chest like the fragile flower of the Vanishing Lotus he'd managed to transplant and carry with him.

And then he penned his reply: _Thank you, but I will be continuing my travels for at least a year. Perhaps when I return, I may have more to discuss if you are still interested._

Travelling with Luna, living in tandem with nature and discovering what it had to offer, Neville thought he'd finally found himself again. Not Neville, the bumbling and shy; not Longbottom the Snake-Slayer; just Neville Longbottom, a man fascinated by the plants of the world and keen to learn more. Here, away from all other distractions and necessities of life at home, he'd found the freedom to pursue that which piqued his interest most.

The time would come, he knew, when he would want to go home, to bring his discoveries back to his greenhouse and discuss them with other experts. But for now, there was more out there in the world and Neville wanted to see what it had to offer.

He was in no hurry to return.


End file.
